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Here's the article I got to submit to Loan Officer Magazine:
Have you ever been to an in home wine tasting? For most people the concept is brand new, but it is gaining popularity among wine lovers and newbie’s alike. The in home wine tasting experience provides a unique atmosphere to grow business. When people get together for food and wine, pleasant conversation flows easily. After leaving my former career in 2009, I needed something new and fun. I found a very enjoyable way of blending my favorite things. Wine, friends, and of course… income! I became a personal wine consultant with WineShop at Home. When I tell people that I conduct in home wine tastings for WineShop at Home, the response is almost overwhelming. It is very easy to invite them to host a tasting in their own home with their friends. Within one month of starting, I was booked with more parties than I ever imagined! It got me thinking about Client Development Tastings. New customers are the lifeblood of your business. Keeping those customers and building relationships with them is critical to the long term success of your business.
Wouldn’t you love a unique way to develop better relationships with your existing customers AND gather leads from them effortlessly? It’s easier than you think!
You can have wine tastings in your home or office – Invite your friends, neighbors, clients…they’ll have fun, learn a little more about wine, and they’ll remember YOU as the one who put it all together!
Not only that, but if your guests decide to have a fun wine tasting in their home, you can attend and meet all of their friends. It’s a perfect way to effortlessly bring in new leads, build your database, market to past clients, and close quality loans.
Before a wine tasting takes place, the host orders a tasting sampler of wines sourced from WineShop at Home. These hand crafted, limited production, artisan wines are all from our winery in Napa Valley and they are not available in stores or restaurants. The host then invites 10-16 of their wine loving friends to their home, provides some recommended cheeses & chocolates for pairing, and voila! We have a wine tasting party! I come as the “entertainment. It couldn’t be any easier to get people together for a unique, enjoyable evening! At the end, there is opportunity for the guests to purchase their favorites, either from the wines we tasted or from any of our other hand crafted artisan wines. They can also join the wine club, send the wine club as a gift, host their own party, or get more information on becoming a wine consultant.
We also offer beautiful wines that our clients can personalize by uploading their own logo or picture to design their own label. These make spectacular marketing statements at corporate events or can be given as gifts. (RESPA friendly…hint, hint…) While other businesses are struggling, mine is booming! Why? Because prospecting is always better with a good glass of wine! All guests also receive my monthly e-newsletter straight from the wine country with Wine Country Lifestyle tips and recipes.
Most of the people who come to these tastings are people who would qualify as good mortgage or real estate leads. They are all of home ownership age and they have steady income. Our wines range anywhere from $12-$32 a bottle, you do the math. The host holds it in their home with their friends. Do you know people who enjoy wine? Do you know how many wine loving friends they would have come over… that you have never met before… for wine… if they allowed you to host a tasting at their home? How much would your business grow if you met 10-16 new people at a tasting? What if one of them had a tasting and invited you and you got to meet 10-16 of their friends? What if you could meet new people in a fun, social environment where you have the chance to build a relationship with them over your common love of wine? Locally, our professionals are sponsoring wine tastings and I make sure to thank our sponsor/host of the evening and highlight whatever service, workshop, “free credit report”, etc. they are looking to promote. I can’t tell you how successful these Client Development Tastings have been! Some of our local mortgage and real estate professionals have even decided to moonlight as a wine consultant and marry the two businesses together to reap huge rewards in both!
The cost to purchase a wine sampler is pretty insignificant when you consider the potential it has to grow your business. It only costs $59 + tax* and what you’ll get is a fun evening and some new opportunities to network. The timing couldn’t be better…most people today want to learn more about wine and food but they simply don’t know where to find the information. Our culture is about enjoying wine with friends and family.
If you are trying to think out of the box and want to add some “grass roots” marketing to your social media marketing try hosting a wine tasting with one of your friends and find out how successful it can be for you!
WineShop at Home is currently licensed in 29 states to conduct in home wine tastings. We can ship to 33 states. Our Private Wine Tastings are a unique experience designed to be shared by the host and their invited guests . To learn more about Hosting Your own Client Development Wine Tasting, Personalized Wine Labels, or any of the other services we offer, visit www.WineShopAtHome.com or call 1-800-WineShop. Please reference this article when contacting WineShop At Home.
WA Permit #402750
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Summertime Tastings
We had a great summer! In July we hit our goal of becoming a Team Leader!!! We have learned a ton of things about wine as we've gone along and a lot of it has been from the guests at our parties as well as the abundance of free training we have received.
We have a team call every Monday night and even when I can't actually be on the call it's recorded so I can listen in later. What has been so great about that is that we actually get to hear from the founder of WineShop at Home about the wines being released every month. He'll answer any question we have about wine making, varietals, aromas, flavors, bottling...etc. It's been very helpful as we do the new months tastings with the new wines. I can remember specific details he shared with us that I can pass on to our wine loving guests.
Every month we've been having new changes besides the new wines. Our red wine stemware came in... finally! Phew! The stems are so beautiful and elegant to drink wine out of that it's been really hard asking people to wait for them to arrive so we can start making them available again.
We've also made available a half case of personalized wine! This is going to be a hit this year because so many people are hesitant to order 12 bottles of wine to give as gifts, but 6 can really make a special gift to a select group of people.
I also got published last month in Loan Officer Magazine. I put together an article on using wine tastings as a way to develop new opportunities for Loan Officers & Real Estate Professionals. I'll post the original article here next.
My wine club wines come tomorrow so I'll have new material to discuss then. These are our special occasion wines. I love the research I get to do for my job!!!
We have a team call every Monday night and even when I can't actually be on the call it's recorded so I can listen in later. What has been so great about that is that we actually get to hear from the founder of WineShop at Home about the wines being released every month. He'll answer any question we have about wine making, varietals, aromas, flavors, bottling...etc. It's been very helpful as we do the new months tastings with the new wines. I can remember specific details he shared with us that I can pass on to our wine loving guests.
Every month we've been having new changes besides the new wines. Our red wine stemware came in... finally! Phew! The stems are so beautiful and elegant to drink wine out of that it's been really hard asking people to wait for them to arrive so we can start making them available again.
We've also made available a half case of personalized wine! This is going to be a hit this year because so many people are hesitant to order 12 bottles of wine to give as gifts, but 6 can really make a special gift to a select group of people.
I also got published last month in Loan Officer Magazine. I put together an article on using wine tastings as a way to develop new opportunities for Loan Officers & Real Estate Professionals. I'll post the original article here next.
My wine club wines come tomorrow so I'll have new material to discuss then. These are our special occasion wines. I love the research I get to do for my job!!!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Different Hosts, Different Parties
So it has been way too long since I posted. I guess I didn't realize how helpful this was, but I've been getting verbal feedback from new consultants who have been reading it so I'll definately be more diligent about posting. The goal is every week, but with kids, family, business, etc... I'll try to at least write about our weekly parties.
Anyway, the last 3 months have been some of the most fun I've ever had in the business. Of course there are lows and highs, but overall I can't believe this is "work". Since my last post we have had several more, obviously. Here are some challenges and things we learned from them.
The Family Reunion
It was a really fun party to do. What a great way to spend time with family and do something new! The energy in the room was really good almost too good. There was a lot of excitement to see one another and visit. Older family members were very interested in the wine tasting, some of the younger ones were mildly interested depending on their experience with wine, and the kids that were brought could obviously care less. What we learned is that when it comes to family reunions they are not gathering to learn about and buy wine, they are coming to socialize. This is fine as long as going in we realize that we are the entertainment and we get our host to buy extra wine for their party before hand. We still closed out some good sales for the night so it was worth it, just a bit more work than we thought going in. Some host coaching tips here. Remind them this is a wine event, all present need to be 21 & over. Please don't serve hard alcohol to guests before the tasting, it alters their palate and we don't want anyone overdrinking. And, if some of the guests are really not that interested in learning about wine, maybe they could go to another room to watch the game or something. That way everyone has a good time doing what they want & there will be plenty of wine left over to try as they would like to.
The Sharing Party
I call it this because this is a party where the host invites their friends that don't have very much money, but they want to do something nice for them and include them in something fun. The hard part with these parties is that you can't predict them. Good host coaching is key here. Make sure to emphasize that they should invite their wine loving friends. We want all to come and have a good time, but it's really discouraging to walk away with $40 in sales.
The Young Crowd
This can be a really fun, great party or a bust. It's similar to the family reunion in that some are there to drink & not to buy. But again this is an unpredictable group. So many young people are really into wine and trying new wines. We found that the wine club is something that did really well at this party.
In our most succesful parties that we've had, we've stumble across this formula:
1. Get the host to serve sparkling wine as the guests arrive. It creates a fun, festive atmosphere, but it doesn't alter peoples perception as to what the party will be like.
2. Good communication and coaching with the host to help them understand your vision for the tasting and make sure you understand theirs. Wine tasting parties are kind of a new concept and so its our job to teach people how they should go.
3. Practice presenting the wine. We have learned that it takes between 6-10 tastings before we really got everything down that we wanted to say. We've made lots of notes in our tasting book to help us and keep us on track, but every tasting is different. Stay relaxed and go with the flow. Guide the guests and don't try to be a dictator. Have Fun!
I made this post about parties, but it was just to get up to date. Next time I will talk about wine. We have learned sooooo much about wine I can't wait to share it, but it'll have to wait until next time!
Anyway, the last 3 months have been some of the most fun I've ever had in the business. Of course there are lows and highs, but overall I can't believe this is "work". Since my last post we have had several more, obviously. Here are some challenges and things we learned from them.
The Family Reunion
It was a really fun party to do. What a great way to spend time with family and do something new! The energy in the room was really good almost too good. There was a lot of excitement to see one another and visit. Older family members were very interested in the wine tasting, some of the younger ones were mildly interested depending on their experience with wine, and the kids that were brought could obviously care less. What we learned is that when it comes to family reunions they are not gathering to learn about and buy wine, they are coming to socialize. This is fine as long as going in we realize that we are the entertainment and we get our host to buy extra wine for their party before hand. We still closed out some good sales for the night so it was worth it, just a bit more work than we thought going in. Some host coaching tips here. Remind them this is a wine event, all present need to be 21 & over. Please don't serve hard alcohol to guests before the tasting, it alters their palate and we don't want anyone overdrinking. And, if some of the guests are really not that interested in learning about wine, maybe they could go to another room to watch the game or something. That way everyone has a good time doing what they want & there will be plenty of wine left over to try as they would like to.
The Sharing Party
I call it this because this is a party where the host invites their friends that don't have very much money, but they want to do something nice for them and include them in something fun. The hard part with these parties is that you can't predict them. Good host coaching is key here. Make sure to emphasize that they should invite their wine loving friends. We want all to come and have a good time, but it's really discouraging to walk away with $40 in sales.
The Young Crowd
This can be a really fun, great party or a bust. It's similar to the family reunion in that some are there to drink & not to buy. But again this is an unpredictable group. So many young people are really into wine and trying new wines. We found that the wine club is something that did really well at this party.
In our most succesful parties that we've had, we've stumble across this formula:
1. Get the host to serve sparkling wine as the guests arrive. It creates a fun, festive atmosphere, but it doesn't alter peoples perception as to what the party will be like.
2. Good communication and coaching with the host to help them understand your vision for the tasting and make sure you understand theirs. Wine tasting parties are kind of a new concept and so its our job to teach people how they should go.
3. Practice presenting the wine. We have learned that it takes between 6-10 tastings before we really got everything down that we wanted to say. We've made lots of notes in our tasting book to help us and keep us on track, but every tasting is different. Stay relaxed and go with the flow. Guide the guests and don't try to be a dictator. Have Fun!
I made this post about parties, but it was just to get up to date. Next time I will talk about wine. We have learned sooooo much about wine I can't wait to share it, but it'll have to wait until next time!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Our Party Was A Hit!!!!
Our party was unbelievably good.
I set up my little tasting notes and started. Kristy and I work all of our parties together thank goodness because I could not do it without her. We passed out the tasting menus and glasses and while she poured the tastings, I explained the steps for looking at the wine for clarity, swirling the wine, smelling the wine, and then tasting the pour. Everyone was engrossed and holding up their glasses and asking what it was we were checking for, etc. It was great!
We started with the Albion Viognier (Vee-ohn-yay) which was everyone's favorite white. It was very good. Everyone shouted that they could taste pear, in fact I could too. I handed around the tasting notes and description of the wine for people to look at along with the pairing recipe on the back of the card for Crab Cakes. We sold several bottles of that wine it was so good!
Then there was the Milano Cellars Pinot Grigio, which is one of my all time favorite wines that I always have on hand in my fridge. This one is very good and crisp.
I really wish I had been able to make my own notes on all of these wines because then I could really describe it, but I was in a whirlwind of presenting and didn't have time to make my own notes on anything. I'll try to do better, promise. But if you really want to know how good the wines are, just set up a party with us and you can taste them all for yourself! :)
Then we tasted Sun Fish's Pinot Noir... soooo gooood. That's really all I can say. EVERYONE loved that wine. We sold plenty of it!
Our fourth taste was the Mariana Vineyard Petite Sirah. It's good and has a much tangier flavor due to all the berries, blackberry, blueberry, cherry. It has good tannin too. (I'll be honest, I'm not sure if that's really how to describe the tannin or not...)
The fifth taste was Albion Cuvee Rouge, another favorite. It's a special red blend, 50% merlot, 25% Sirah, and 25% Zinfandel. An excellent red wine to serve guests, plus you look cool with a blended wine that you can explain - Ha!
Finally was another major favorite, Talmage Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. This one has a label that you can order personalized for events or corporate branding, etc. It's an extremely good, easy drinking wine. One of my personal favorites of the evening.
So, for our party - we sold $200 more than the average party!!! So the lesson, if I can do it you can do it. Everyone had a blast, we got 2 more parties booked and several wine club memberships sold.
Here are my favorite wines from the party that I recommend to anyone. The Albion Viognier, the Sun Fish Pinot Noir, and the Talmage Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.
Here's my only regret of the evening. We were so consumed with presenting the information that Kristy and I completely forgot to take pictures! Next time in 2 weeks we'll get some pictures up to show how fabulous and swanky these parties are!
I set up my little tasting notes and started. Kristy and I work all of our parties together thank goodness because I could not do it without her. We passed out the tasting menus and glasses and while she poured the tastings, I explained the steps for looking at the wine for clarity, swirling the wine, smelling the wine, and then tasting the pour. Everyone was engrossed and holding up their glasses and asking what it was we were checking for, etc. It was great!
We started with the Albion Viognier (Vee-ohn-yay) which was everyone's favorite white. It was very good. Everyone shouted that they could taste pear, in fact I could too. I handed around the tasting notes and description of the wine for people to look at along with the pairing recipe on the back of the card for Crab Cakes. We sold several bottles of that wine it was so good!
Then there was the Milano Cellars Pinot Grigio, which is one of my all time favorite wines that I always have on hand in my fridge. This one is very good and crisp.
I really wish I had been able to make my own notes on all of these wines because then I could really describe it, but I was in a whirlwind of presenting and didn't have time to make my own notes on anything. I'll try to do better, promise. But if you really want to know how good the wines are, just set up a party with us and you can taste them all for yourself! :)
Then we tasted Sun Fish's Pinot Noir... soooo gooood. That's really all I can say. EVERYONE loved that wine. We sold plenty of it!
Our fourth taste was the Mariana Vineyard Petite Sirah. It's good and has a much tangier flavor due to all the berries, blackberry, blueberry, cherry. It has good tannin too. (I'll be honest, I'm not sure if that's really how to describe the tannin or not...)
The fifth taste was Albion Cuvee Rouge, another favorite. It's a special red blend, 50% merlot, 25% Sirah, and 25% Zinfandel. An excellent red wine to serve guests, plus you look cool with a blended wine that you can explain - Ha!
Finally was another major favorite, Talmage Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. This one has a label that you can order personalized for events or corporate branding, etc. It's an extremely good, easy drinking wine. One of my personal favorites of the evening.
So, for our party - we sold $200 more than the average party!!! So the lesson, if I can do it you can do it. Everyone had a blast, we got 2 more parties booked and several wine club memberships sold.
Here are my favorite wines from the party that I recommend to anyone. The Albion Viognier, the Sun Fish Pinot Noir, and the Talmage Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.
Here's my only regret of the evening. We were so consumed with presenting the information that Kristy and I completely forgot to take pictures! Next time in 2 weeks we'll get some pictures up to show how fabulous and swanky these parties are!
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Wine Came!
I ordered my wine for my party and it came yesterday! I received a 2008 Sun Fish Pinot Noir, a 2007 Mariana Vineyard Petite Syrah, a 2009 Milano Cellars Pinot Grigio, a 2007 Albion Viognier, a 2005 Talmage Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 2007 Albion Cuvee Rouge. For more information you can find out about these wines at my website, www.swankytastings.com.
There are about 15-20 people coming and everyone is excited! I ordered some sparkling wine to get everyone started. I'll be sure to post again to announce what a success the party was.
There are about 15-20 people coming and everyone is excited! I ordered some sparkling wine to get everyone started. I'll be sure to post again to announce what a success the party was.
Friday, February 12, 2010
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